Post-independence leaders used press

After independence from Spain in 1821, residents on the Rio Grande frontier relied on the Mexican press to know who was in charge in Mexico City or in Washington.

Press views

The press essentially had become an instrument of political factions competing for control of government.

A former Saltillo newspaper owner years ago said at an Inter-American Newspaper Association meeting in Monterrey that the public perceived the press of that era as another branch of government.

The late Ernesto Zertuche, Nuevo Leon historian, described the situation this way: “The country was under a new Constitution (1824) and like the norteamericanos, they had their executive, legislative and judicial.

In Mexico, government went from an Empire to a Republic where newspapers were viewed as the Cuarto Poder (Fourth Estate).”

The Mexican press experienced some changes in its relationship with government institutions after Texas independence in 1836.

For starters, everyone wanted Santa Anna released and returned home to be lynched.

Mexico’s subsequent border conflicts with the U.S. caused newspapers to reaffirm support for the Centralist government.

Border troubles persisted over boundary disputes, prompting residents to call for Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and San Luis Potosi to compose a nation separate from both the U.S. and Mexico.

Enter the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 and suggestions that Santa Anna partisans retake the Coahuila territory now called the Republic of Texas.

The heat got closer to home when organizers of the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande moved the capital from the former Revilla (Guerrero) to Laredo.

Newspapers in Mexico’s population centers criticized the plan from the inception, suggesting that it was a conspiracy in the U.S. to annex the Republic of Texas and to pursue territorial expansion west to New Mexico, California and Oregon.

The Centralists in Mexico City pushed the Mexican press into an anti-Yankee frenzy when it became known that the U.S. was interested in purchasing a northern section of the state of Sonora.

The words “Manifest Destiny” as a U.S. expansionist policy became dirty words with the Mexican press.

A biography of Mariano Paredes Arrillaga, who had succeeded Jose Joaquin de Herrera as president, made references to a paper, El Siglo XIX.

El Siglo XIX

El Siglo XIX, started by Ignacio Cumplido in 1841, had endorsed President Herrera’s proposal to negotiate a settlement with the Republic of the Rio Grande as a means of derailing U.S. plans to annex Texas.

Other newspapers (La Voz del Pueblo, El Amigo del Pueblo) opposed any settlement with the Republic of the Rio Grande.

Both papers called for military action against Texas, a proposition supported by sympathizers of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

Santa Anna had lost an election to Herrera, who in turn had been replaced by Paredes Arrillaga.

Enter the newspaper named El Tiempo, a publication started by the intellectual Lucas Alamán.

Alamán had international stature, having served as foreign secretary and whose paper supported the establishment of a monarchy.

El Tiempo strongly opposed U.S. plans to annex Texas and proposed military intervention, if necessary, to prevent U.S. demands for more territory from Mexico.

In early 1846, El Republicano, continuing for the acquired El Siglo XIX, joined El Monitorin in opposition to the views of El Tiempo on how to deal with the U.S. situation.

These papers were trying to resolve editorial differences by April 1846.

Two months later, in early June, they were in agreement to support the Paredes Arrillaga administration in rejecting all U.S. money offers for acquisitions.